Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death

 Psalm 23

The Lord is the Good Shepherd

Psalm 23 is a familiar psalm to all. Reading Psalm 23 can help us to recover from all our distress and affliction. I became familiar with Psalm 23 since my childhood in Sunday school. I still remembered in 1976, I took part in a Psalm reciting contest. I chose to recite Psalm 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters. (vv.1-2)

How could this Shepherd make me lack nothing?

“He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside quiet waters.”

Then my mind starts to envision and imagine, and I recall a big field in a park, where my family would run and play there happily, and we are like little sheep, laying down on the green pastures where supply of food is bountiful.

However, in real life, most often than not, the shepherds tend their sheep in the wilderness of Israel. There are no green pastures, but wilderness with rocks and without grass. No green fields, let alone laying down on the green pastures.

It would be extremely hot and burning to lie on the stony ground under the sun! There is no stream of water there too. How then could the shepherd feed their sheep with grass?

The shepherd would walk in front with his sheep following behind him to look for a green pasture for food. There is no big pasture but only some pieces of land with green grasses here and there.

Moreover, grasses on all these small pieces of land are not greenish, they look rather like yellowish patches most of the times. With a small piece of land grown with green grasses, it would soon be fully consumed by the flock. Then the shepherd must go on to find another green pasture, and the sheep would follow him.

David was once a shepherd boy, and when he wrote this psalm, he was fully aware that if the sheep were to be laying down on the green pasture, it would be indeed the grace of God.

When the sheep could lie down in the green pasture with grasses and have quiet waters in the wilderness, it is something abnormal and it is purely the special grace of God!

The Lord is our Shepherd today and how gracious He is to us! All that we have is a result of God’s grace that has come upon our lives, and this is not something that we should take for granted. Therefore, we must come before the Lord with a grateful heart.

However, like flowers which will wither eventually, there are predicaments and crises we have to face in our normal living. Green pastures will soon be consumed, and we must follow our Shepherd closely to move ahead. He would take care of us and keep us safe and sound.

He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. (v.3)

God not only provides us materially, but He also leads us spiritually.

It is very easy for a sheep to get lost, and hence Bible often likens a lost man to a lost sheep. How could the sheep lose its way?

After it has finished eating the grass before it, it would go over to another place that is not far away when it sees grasses over there. Then it would move further on after its consumption, and as a result, it moves further and further away from the shepherd.

The shepherd would try all his ways to get back the sheep when he finds it losing its way. There are many stones in the wilderness, and the shepherd would take a stone and throw it to the front of the sheep which is eating in a far distance, and the sheep would come to its sense, and it would return to its shepherd.

We are exactly like the lost sheep. Some people seek after materialism and they could never get enough with one house, two houses or even three houses. They move further and further away from God and forgot about Him. God then throws them some stones, so that they could come to their senses and return to Him.

However, sometimes there is no turning back for us, we would only drift away further and further to another pasture. When the shepherd discovers that, he would worry that his sheep could have been eaten by some wild animals, and he would throw his stones again, but this round on the sheep.

We should come to our awakening when God throws stones to remind us something, or else it would be extremely painful if God were to hit us with some more stones. Each one of us does have some weaknesses, and times when we would leave God, but God would throw His stones on us to call us back to Him.

God loves us and He would chastise us at an appropriate time, in order to lead us back before Him and for us to walk in the righteous path, i.e., to walk in the way of the Lord.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (v.4)

God also leads us to walk in the righteous path along our spiritual journey. Sometimes we encounter hardships in lives, where it is as if we are walking through the valley of death. We need someone to be with us and support us, share our pains and give us extra strength.

People tend to experience God’s love when they are in their difficult times. They experience God to be the faithful God, and He never forsake us but support us at all times. Many people experience God being extremely close to them in the midst of their sufferings, and this kind of experience has turned out to be a help and reminder throughout their lifetime.

We have enjoyed many good years with a global economic growth since the 1990’s. And now ironically, we are trapped in this global pandemic crisis. We can trust God to overcome this. Ask God to help us so that we can experience Him in our sufferings, that we would know God more and draw closer to Him. We are not to waste our days in this pandemic time.

When we are able to control our lives and when we are quite successful, we would think that we are indeed doing well. Nevertheless, when we are in pains, at our wit’s end, and feel that we are running alone and really need God in our lives, that is when we could experience God’s comfort with His rod and His staff.

Let’s recount our hardship in the past and wonder how we could be able to live alone by ourselves and strive to overcome our difficulties. We grow under such a condition. It was at that season that we felt that God was near to us, and His presence was with us!

Now we should read God’s Word daily and praise God with psalms. When I start counting God’s blessings, I found that His grace is sufficient for me. His grace is made perfect in man’s weaknesses. God’s grace is sufficient for us.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (v.5)

God’s grace makes our cups overflowing. We should count God’s blessings in whatever circumstance we are in, whether we are in good or bad seasons, or when we are walking through the valley of death.

I love to get up every morning counting God’s goodness before Him. I recount how God has graciously adopted me and filled my cup with blessings in different stages of my life’s journey. It is God’s grace that I have become who I am now.

We would be filled with joy everyday if we count God’s blessings in our lives daily. How then could we feel dissatisfied with God in our lives?

God’s grace is often beyond what we could ask and think of. David, the psalmist, really felt God’s abundant grace. He was once a little shepherd boy, but he became the king of the nation of Israel later. He received God’s pardon and was upheld by Him when he was weak and sinned against Him.

David experienced God’s great love for him. How great was God’s grace for him, and he made such a resolution?

Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (v.6)

David believed that God would be with him forever. And he trusted that God’s goodness and love would follow him all the days of his life. He had such faith and resolution to give thanks to God.

We are also chased after by two things - the goodness and the love of God all the days of our lives. How could we ever walk in God’s will and way if we do not have God’s goodness and love in our lives?

It doesn’t matter how much wealth and fame we could gain in this life, but it does matter to have God’s goodness and love following us all the days of our lives. As Paul said, all things in this world would become garbage if they were to compare with Jesus Christ, God’s love and goodness (Philippians 3:8).

Are we relying on our own abilities to live our days or are we allowing God’s goodness and love to follow us all the days of our lives? The psalmist made up his mind to dwell in the house of God for his entire life, “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

We could only gather and worship God online because the pandemic is rampant now. However, we do really miss those Sundays when we could come to the house of God to worship and to serve Him. God’s presence is still in our midst be it in the sanctuary or online, as long as we worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

We do not rely on ourselves, but seek for God’s mercy with a heart of gratitude. We must return before God and live in His court – in His presence forever. May we offer ourselves to God once again, and live everyday lives in accordance with His will, and follow Him all the days of our lives, serving Him and living in His court, and dwelling in His presence forever.